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Reality+
Directed byCoralie Fargeat
Written byCoralie Fargeat
Produced byJérôme Lateur
Starring
  • Vanessa Hessler
  • Vincent Colombe
  • Aurélien Muller
  • Aurélia Poirier
  • Samuel Trépanier
CinematographyPhilip Lozano [1]
Edited byCharlotte Rembauville [1]
Music byWalt Fermaitre [1]
Production
company
Mezzanine [2]
Release date
  • 2014 (2014)
Running time
22 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench

Reality+ is a 2014 French science fiction short film written and directed by Coralie Fargeat and funded through the Audi Talents Awards. The film explores a near-future Paris in which a brain chip called Reality+ allows users to see themselves with their idealized physique, and is based on themes including society's obsession with appearance. Fargeat used a limited budget to blend futuristic elements with Paris's historic setting. Reality+ received accolades and inspired her second feature film, The Substance.

Cast

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  • Vanessa Hessler as Stella+
  • Vincent Colombe as Vincent Dangeville
  • Aurélien Muller as Vincent+
  • Aurélia Poirier as La Voisine / Stella
  • Samuel Trépanier as Hervé

Synopsis

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In the near future, Vincent, a Parisian unhappy with his appearance, installs Reality+, a brain chip that lets users see themselves and others with their dream physique. Those with Reality+ see themselves as models, while those without must settle for a less ideal reality. However, Reality+ only works in 12-hour intervals, a limitation for Vincent as he navigates an appearance-obsessed world and falls for Stella, another Reality+ user.

Production

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The film was written and directed by Coralie Fargeat,[3] produced by Jérôme Lateur[4] and shot in France.[5] In 2013, Fargeat was the recipient of the Audi Talents Awards,[6] a cultural sponsorship program that funded the film.[7] Her concept for the film stemmed from media stories she had seen about people willing to suffer and risk their lives for the unattainable promise of happiness—like Russian girls undergoing hundreds of operations to resemble a Barbie doll, or Chinese girls enduring painful, dangerous leg-lengthening surgery.[8] She was a fan of the science fiction genre[9][10] and drew inspiration from Existenz, Gattaca, Total Recall, and the works of Philip K. Dick[11]—a genre she felt was rarely explored in French cinema[12] which producer Nicolas Altmayer ascribed to lack of resources in the French film industry.[13]

When casting the plus (+) characters, Fargeat sought actors with an unnervingly similar and unnaturally perfect appearance, aiming to make them feel distinctly detached from reality. For the true-to-life characters, it was the opposite: she wanted imperfections to create empathy and charm.[14] Hesseler was working in New York when she met Fargeat over Skype. She liked the script and the film's message that "appearance isn't everything in life."[15]

For Fargeat, it was crucial to establish the film's world-building to ensure its credibility; she believed that if the world-building didn’t work, the entire film would fall apart.[16] Working with a limited budget, she couldn’t showcase elements like futuristic cars but conveyed the setting in other ways.[17] She depicted a futuristic city growing within the historic version of Paris, adding technological interfaces, fingerprint scans for payments, and other elements that might become commonplace in the next 10-20 years.[18][19]

She also aimed to present Vincent’s apartment as a claustrophobic space, drawing inspiration from the work of Erwin Olaf and Gregory Crewdson.[20] She also used dark colors and sound design to enhance this idea.[21]

The film featured over 90 visual effects shots.[22] The nightclub scene featured 50 extras, with multiple takes combined to create the illusion of 300-400 people in the club.[23] For the scenes where Reality+ is activated in front of the mirror, actors were filmed in front of a green screen, with the background recreated in 3D based on a photographed real bathroom. Camera movements were tracked with the actors’ reflections to ensure a perfect match.[24]

Cinematographer Philippe Lozano also used a head-mounted camera to capture the moment when the chip begins to malfunction.[25]

Post-release

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Fargeat expressed interest in adapting the short into an episode of Black Mirror.[26] The film was later licensed to Wired[27] and would provide inspiration for her second feature film[28] The Substance.[29][30]

Accolades

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Awards won are shown in green; awards in competition in yellow.

Award/Selection Festival Location Date References
Audience Favorite Palm Springs ShortFest USA June 2015 [31], [32], [33]
Audience Award Sapporo Short Fest Japan October 2015 [31], [34], [33]
International Audience Award Shnit International Festival Bern October 2015 [31], [35], [33]
Best Movie Festival International du Film Court Paul Simon France June 2015 [33]
Jury Award Festival des Films Européens de Mamers France March 2015 [36], [33]
Audience Award Festival Cellul'art Germany April 2015 [31], [37], [33]
European Award Festival Corti da Sogni Italy May 2015 [38], [33]
Jury Award Best Director All Shorts Irving Film Festival (AsiFF) USA May 2016 [39]
Jury Award Best Cinematographer All Shorts Irving Film Festival (AsiFF) USA May 2016 [39]
Tribeca Film Festival (Competition) Tribeca Film Festival USA April 2016 [40], [41], [33]
Cleveland Film Festival (Competition) Cleveland Film Festival USA April 2016 [31], [33]
Newport Beach Film Festival (Competition) Newport Beach Film Festival USA April 2016 [31], [33]
Mexico Short (Competition) Mexico Short Mexico September 2015 [33]
Odense Film Festival (Competition) Odense Film Festival Denmark August 2015 [31], [33]
Cinema Jove Film Festival (Competition) Cinema Jove Film Festival Spain June 2015 [31], [33]
MEDIAWAVE (Competition) MEDIAWAVE Rencontres Hungary May 2015 [33]
RIFF – Rome Independent Film Festival (Competition) RIFF – Rome Independent Film Festival Italy May 2015 [31], [33]
Festival International du Film d'Alès – Itinérances (Competition) Festival International du Film d'Alès – Itinérances France April 2015 [42], [33]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Reality+ on YouTube".
  2. ^ "Allociné - Reality+".
  3. ^ "REALITY+". www.magnetfilm.de. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  4. ^ AlloCine. Casting de Reality+ (in French). Retrieved 2024-12-17 – via www.allocine.fr.
  5. ^ "Coralie Fargeat - Audi talents". web.archive.org. 2021-02-25. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  6. ^ Castermans, Suzy (2013-10-24). "Audi Talents Award 2013". TLmagazine. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  7. ^ AlloCine. Les secrets de tournage du film Revenge (in French). Retrieved 2024-12-17 – via www.allocine.fr.
  8. ^ "Reality+". Go Film Magazine. 2015-10-11. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  9. ^ Audi talents (2015-03-02). Portrait de Coralie Fargeat / Lauréat Audi talents awards 2013, catégorie Court-Métrage. Retrieved 2024-12-17 – via YouTube.
  10. ^ "Reality+". Go Film Magazine. 2015-10-11. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  11. ^ AlloCine (2015-12-14). "Reality+, un court-métrage à la Black Mirror". AlloCiné (in French). Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  12. ^ Audi talents (2015-03-02). Portrait de Coralie Fargeat / Lauréat Audi talents awards 2013, catégorie Court-Métrage. Retrieved 2024-12-17 – via YouTube.
  13. ^ "Les Audi Talent Awards 2013 récompensent un projet de film de science-fiction". Premiere.fr (in French). 2015-09-14. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  14. ^ "Reality+". Go Film Magazine. 2015-10-11. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  15. ^ Audi talents (2015-03-02). Portrait de Coralie Fargeat / Lauréat Audi talents awards 2013, catégorie Court-Métrage. Retrieved 2024-12-17 – via YouTube.
  16. ^ "Reality+". Go Film Magazine. 2015-10-11. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  17. ^ "Reality+". Go Film Magazine. 2015-10-11. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  18. ^ Audi talents (2015-03-02). Portrait de Coralie Fargeat / Lauréat Audi talents awards 2013, catégorie Court-Métrage. Retrieved 2024-12-17 – via YouTube.
  19. ^ "Reality+". Go Film Magazine. 2015-10-11. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  20. ^ "Émergence | Rencontre avec Coralie Fargeat". web.archive.org. Les Inrockuptibles. 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  21. ^ "Reality+". Go Film Magazine. 2015-10-11. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  22. ^ AlloCine (2015-12-14). "Reality+, un court-métrage à la Black Mirror". AlloCiné (in French). Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  23. ^ Audi talents (2015-03-02). Portrait de Coralie Fargeat / Lauréat Audi talents awards 2013, catégorie Court-Métrage. Retrieved 2024-12-17 – via YouTube.
  24. ^ Audi talents (2015-03-02). Portrait de Coralie Fargeat / Lauréat Audi talents awards 2013, catégorie Court-Métrage. Retrieved 2024-12-17 – via YouTube.
  25. ^ Audi talents (2015-03-02). Portrait de Coralie Fargeat / Lauréat Audi talents awards 2013, catégorie Court-Métrage. Retrieved 2024-12-17 – via YouTube.
  26. ^ "Premiere: Reality +, a disturbing sci-fi short on our shallow culture". web.archive.org. 2015-07-06. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  27. ^ Watercutter, Angela. "Exploring How to Change the Way the World Literally Sees You". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  28. ^ Wise, Damon (2024-12-10). "'The Substance' Director Coralie Fargeat On Her Film's Five Golden Globes Nominations: "It's A Victory For Sincerity"". Deadline. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  29. ^ "En coulisses, le film « The Substance », c'était « Apocalypse Now » !". Le Point (in French). 2024-05-23. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  30. ^ ""Reality+", sur Mubi : le réjouissant court métrage SF de Coralie Fargeat qui préfigure "The Substance"". www.telerama.fr (in French). 2024-11-06. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  31. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Reality+". Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  32. ^ "Palm Springs ShortFest 2015 Awards". Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  33. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Reality+ on Coralie Fargeat's Website". Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  34. ^ "Sapporo Short Fest 2015 Awards". Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  35. ^ "Showcasing Women Directors at Shnit Short Film Festival". Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  36. ^ "Le Festival du Film Européen de Mamers 2015". Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  37. ^ "Cellul'art Festival 2015 Archive". Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  38. ^ "Corti da Sogni Antonio Ricci 2015". Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  39. ^ a b "All Shorts Irving Film Festival Jury Award". Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  40. ^ "Tribeca Film Festival 2016". Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  41. ^ "Reality+ at Tribeca 2016". Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  42. ^ "Itinérances Festival 2015". Retrieved 15 December 2024.
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